A recent survey and report by Physician Wellness Services, a Minneapolis, MN-based company that counsels physicians and hospitals on wellness and related issues, and Cejka Search, a St. Louis, MO-based physician executive search firm, shows more physicians are getting stressed and it’s getting worse.

…How bad is the problem? The survey shows that 87% of 2,000 physicians reported they were moderately to severely stressed, and 63% said the stress has increased “moderately to dramatically” over the past three years.

…For physicians, the work-related stress factors are:

Administrative demands

Long work hours

On-call schedules

Concerns about medical malpractice lawsuits

All those factors are essentially built into today’s job of being a physician, at least for the docs who stick with it.

…”The result of this cumulative stress is declining job satisfaction, motivating physicians to change jobs or leave the practice of medicine altogether,” the report states.

Okay, so it’s getting really rough, leaving you fantasizing about a finding much better job, or quitting.

For most physicians, quitting isn’t a realistic option, so maybe it’s time to work on redefining your ideal job. Once you know what you want, you can go out and find it, right?

I’m going to play Reality Checker here. Let’s begin with the radical idea that your ideal physician job doesn’t yet exist (unless of course you have actually found it).

An even more radical thought — You are going to have to create it yourself … assemble it in bits and pieces.

So how do you do this?

I invite you to play along with me (this is the final exercise from the CPM Program I participated in) as we engage in this thought experiment. But first, a word of caution. What I am about to help you do here is begin to ask questions of yourself — the kind you may have been avoiding.

So, grab a piece of paper, and writing in the present tense, get started with “I work as a … in a … “.

Think of this in multi-layers:

What is your ideal job’s workplace environment? Be specific. Describe the furniture, the building, the view from your window.

Who are you interacting with ? In what capacity? In what numbers? For how long? Think bosses, peers. employees, customers etc.

What is the organizational culture like? How is it expressed? What is your impact in the organization? Are you solo, or working with others?

What skills and talents are you using in this role? What others have you had to acquire to do this job well? How did you acquire them?

Are you still a clinician? A physician entrepreneur? A physician executive? Someone with no further connection to medicine? How have you coped with that shift in your identity?

What are you contributing? What is your impact, and upon what or whom? How are you benefiting?

What core values are you expressing in your job? Does what you are doing contribute to the larger good in the world, or at least in your community? Are you sufficiently satisfied with what you are doing in this role?

If there are conflicts occurring in this vision, how do you resolve them?

Do you have a family? How does the family fit into all of this? What are the trade-offs and how are you handling them?

There are a few rules with this exercise:

Take your time with it. It may take months or years to craft this job.

Explicitly recognize contradictions. This doesn’t mean they can’t occur. Just be aware of them, as potential obstacles to navigate around if necessary.

Avoid the naysayer trap.

Recognize that these are difficult questions to answer. But you will never find the answers if you don’t at least start asking the questions.

Recognize that you have more personal power than you realize.

And recognize that, as you do this exercise, you may come to redefine success.

For my sceptical readers, there is neuroscience to back up how this “manifesting your desire” works – you can read more here and here (and no, I am NOT a fan of “The Secret” or “the Power” — too woowoo for me!)

A final note — It may be that you are already in your ideal job – perhaps it just needs your intentional focus, good boundary-setting and some tweaking! Good luck.

About the author

Philippa Kennealy is President and founder of The Entrepreneurial MD. She is a business advisor, coach and teacher to physicians grappling with the challenges of launching, building or growing their own successful practices or businesses.

She is a board-certified Family Physician who left her own private practice in 1996 to embark on an administrative career as first Medical Director and then CEO of UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center. Subsequently, she served as Executive VP in two internet start-up companies, before launching her first coaching and speaking business, Oya Consulting.

Philippa is passionate about professional development for physicians that permits them to reinvigorate their careers and overcome burnout. As reported to her repeatedly, physicians long for more control over their lives. She believes that entrepreneurship is one way to reintroduce physicians to their own creativity and resourcefulness. Her experience of working with physicians has shown her that, with encouragement, a belief in their own abilities, and a pragmatic approach, they are highly capable of making their inventive ideas a reality. They are, after all, a hard-working, dedicated, smart group of people!